A Month Late and a Sweater Short*

It feels like forever! Guys I'm so sorry for my absence in the last month. Life stepped in and took away all of my free time. In the past month I've been consumed by wedding plans, home redecorating, dieting, applying to grad schools and pulling together a portfolio, and putting together a totally different portfolio for a possible job opportunity. I've been swamped. In the little free time I did get some knitting done. Case in point:



Forecast from Knitty. It was all going very well. I had some lovely eggplant colored 100% wool from WEBS (their new Northampton worsted weight)a great pattern with some lovely mods up my sleeves, and lots of ambition to finish before it turns cold. Well, obviously the knitting gods did not have that in mind because I totally and utterly fucked up. First it was the charted pattern. This was my first time ever using a chart for cables (I've used a chart before for my first fair isle project, Knitty's Center Square but that was for colorwork not cables). I obviously don't know how to read a chart because I came out with this:

See how the cable is all elongated and very, well, not cable-y? Yeah, that's because in the instructions, on the wrong side rows you are supposed to just purl. Well, I didn't realize that the chart also takes this into consideration and charted the wrong side as well as the right side (I thought it just charted the right side). So I got a cable that was double the length specified. The resulting cable wasn't too bad looking, but it certainly didn't look the one in the photos attached to the pattern.

Now if it was just the cable that was messed up I might have been able to live with that, but there was another catastrophe brewing. When I got to the row count in the pattern where you put the sleeves on the waste yarn I was off on the stitch count. Wayyyyy off. So in light of all of the problems I had I decided my best option was to frog it back to the collar. This was my biggest ever frog, over a full ball was knitted that need to be frogged. So I'm back to the collar now and have done two full (correct) repeats of the chart and it is looking much better and way more cablelicious. Oh and I forgot to tell you, I finally finished Wicked! I finally frogged the crappy droopy sleeve and reknit it with more flattering decreases. I also reinforced the button holes and blocked it! I'm just waiting for a none cloudy, less than 100 degree day to photograph it properly. Hopefully, in the next post!


*OR FORECAST: Cloudy and Overcast With Huge F*ck Ups Likely

Finally a FO!

Well, the Baby Surprise Jacket is finished! I finally decided on buttons, and went with my gut feeling:



These are the ones I originally chose at the fabric store. They are a natural shell with a nice little design etched into the material. The shell has hints of both shades of pink when the light reflects off of it tying in nicely with the overall design. I also liked how the more complex buttons give the more simplistic sweater an unexpected detail.

Now on to the sweater:




Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket from "The Opinionated Knitter" by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Bernat Cottontots in "Strawberry" (darker pink) and "Pretty in Pink"
Gauge: 20 sts - 26 rows = 4"
Needles: US 7 Knit Picks Options Circs.
Amount Used: Strawberry : 2.25 skeins. Pretty in Pink : .25 skeins.
Mods: Used an applied I-cord for edging and cuffs.
Buttons: Etched Shell from JoAnn Fabric.
Size: Toddler Size (?)

My thoughts:

Pattern: This pattern is truly ingenious! You knit this semi-rectangular blob and a few origami folds later and you have a baby sweater! In true EZ fashion the directions are a bit...let's say sparse. At first this confused the shit out of me. But after reading and re-reading I got the hang of everything and was able to figure it all out. It truly helps to knit this on a longer circular needle. This allows you to fold it as you go:



If I would have done this on straights I don't know if I could have figured it out on my own. I am a visual learner and not being able to figure out how to fold it and see it in action as I went along would have totally driven me nuts!

Yarn: I used Bernat Cottontots for this project for a few reasons. First, the recipient lives here in Virginia and the baby is due in August. I feared that if I used a sock-weight yarn (for a 0-3 months size) the baby would grow out of it before properly wearing it. It does get cold here in VA, but it seems if summer lasts forever sometimes. The cottontots is 100% worsted weight cotton. Hence reason number two, I wanted something machine washable and dryable. Now I don't have kids, but the thought of having to take time out to hand wash something while trying to take care of two kids seems like a really huge hassle. I mean, I have a hard time hand washing stuff (like store bought wool socks, I've felted a few of those in my time, I'm getting better though). And thirdly, cottontots is cheap. Way cheap, and readily available. I got it at Michael's for under $4 a skein. The downside: It's 100% cotton and pills like none other. It was starting to pill as I was knitting it. It's now finished and it isn't so bad. An appointment with the sweater shaver before gift giving is in order though. I know a lot of people hate working with cotton because it hurts their hands etc. I've never known this phenomenom, perhaps I have hands of steel, I don't know, but it's never been an issue for me. The yarn itself is nice and soft and the garter stitch of the pattern really makes an extra cushy fabric.

Needles: Like I said before, the circs really make a difference with this pattern. If you value your sanity, use them.

Mods: At first I was really tempted to use a varigated sock yarn. I really love how the bright variegated colors look. I bought some Socks That Rock in Sherbet. After doing some research on Ravelry I found that those made with sock yarn came out really small. I waffled for a bit, and then decided to use the Cottontots. I was really enamored with the BSJ I'd seen with and applied i-cord edging and took this into account when trying to pick colors. The variegated cottontots was a bit barfy looking to me so I decided to go with solid colors, and being drawn to pinks, naturally that's what I chose. I am really happy I went with the applied i-cord. It was the first time I have ever done this, but I think it was worth the extra time and aggravation as it really makes the jacket.

Size: In choosing a worsted weight yarn I knew it was going to be a bit bigger. It ended up being more of a toddler sized sweater than an infant one, but I am totally fine with that as babies generally only grow bigger right?

Overall, I am very happy with how this sweater turned out. It is cute, and totally genius in construction. I'll definitely keep it on my baby knitting list.



One last gratuitious shot.

Just to let y'all know my little brother is in town for a few days so I'll be regrettably absent from the blogosphere. See you next week.

I Can't Decide...

I need your help. I can't decide on which buttons to use to finish my Baby Surprise Jacket. There are three different options. Since Fred(necks)burg isn't exactly a metropolitan area, I'm limited on my choices. All of the buttons were purchased from Joann Fabric. Please disregard the cat hair. For larger images check out my flickr page. Here we go,

Option #1



Here's a close-up of the buttons:



Option #2



Button-y close-up:



Option #3



Button Close-up



I'm leaning towards Option #2. What do you think?

Mail Time!

Do you ever have one of those days where you come home from work only to find a package on your doorstep but you have no clue what it contains or where it came from? Today was one of those days. I came home from a crazy day at work to find not one, but TWO packages on my doorstep. And they weren't lackluster packages full of things as mundane as school books or the such, but they were knitting related, and one was full of bright yarny goodness. Oh yes, this was a great surprise.



Over a week ago I ordered some Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock mediumweight in "sherbet." Its intended use was for a EZ Baby Surprise Jacket for a friend's daughter who is due in August. (More on that later). I also ordered a back issue of Interweave's Knitscene, the Fall '06 issue specifically. Why you might ask...for this:



The Central Park Hoodie. See this whole Ravelry thing is throwing me for a loop. I am seeing SO many incredible sweaters there that I.must.knit.NOW!! The problem: it's like 95 freaking degrees outside! Virginia heat + swamp-like humidity = wrong season to knit a wool sweater. The list of sweaters that are on my brain right now is seemingly endless. Rouge. Central Park Hoodie. Licorice Whip. Salina. Button Me Up Pullover. I can go on like this all day. I've knit 1 7/8 sweaters (notice I didn't say 2 whole sweaters, I'm cheating on Wicked even though it is pretty much done) and I have a feeling I just won't be able to stop. I'm addicted to knitting sweaters...in the summer...in Virginia heat. I've lost my mind.

In other knitting news, this has been occupying my time lately:



It's Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket from "The Opinionated Knitter." There has been a recent wave of these popping up all over the interwebs and I (the follower that I am) have hopped on the bandwagon. Originally I had planned on knitting this up in the STR I had purchase specifically for this project (see above) but after reading more about it and figuring out that it would result in a newborn sized sweater I wimped out. I mean newborns in Virginia do NOT need sweaters in the summer (see above). So instead I went to my LYS which equals Michael's craft store since I don't have a LYS (another gripe about living in rural Virginia) and purchased some Bernat Cottontots. It's a worsted weight 100% washable baby-friendly cotton. It might be baby-friendly and washable, but it looks like crap already and it isn't even done yet. The yarn is pilling uncontrollably and I am having huge problems getting all the stitches to look nice and even. I'm hoping a nice soak in the sink and an appointment with the sweater shaver will ease my worries.

In non-knitting related news, my favorite singer/songwriter Josh Ritter has announced his new album due at the end of August with this great sneak peak clip:



I am super psyched. If you get a chance to see him play live, go. It is well worth it.

And lest you think I forgot my Feline Photo Friday (like I did last week) here is Maggie wishing you a happy weekend.

Ravelry, A Future Frog, & An Almost FO

So y'all have heard about Ravelry right? Well, after checking my email account obsessively for weeks I finally got an invite! Of course it happened after I stopped checking my account 5 times a day. I got an invite Friday and didn't check until 10:15 pm Monday night. Of course I found it 45 minutes before my self imposed bedtime when I was supposed to be redding up (cleaning up) the living room. Of course for the last hour I have been checking out the awesome website and poking around adding some of my stash (which I started to photograph weeks ago) to my notebook. I have to honestly say it is incredible and well worth the wait and all the hype it has been receiving. My screenname on Ravelry (as well as Flickr) is 3tuxedocats so don't hesitate to add me as a friend!

On to other knitting things. The last three weeks have been consumed by a new obsession. This:



Any guesses? It's Wicked! I was so impressed with the Zephyr Girls' Rusted Root pattern that I had to knit me another one of their awesome sweaters. I am loving it so far. I am knitting it with the turquoise Shelridge Farms worsted superwash wool I picked up at MDS&W. I love, LOVE, the yarn. It is soft, squishy, and a great deep very slightly shaded turquoise. But I'm not making the standard pattern. I have altered it greatly. But more on that later.

Here's where the frog comes in. I am making a 3/4 length sleeve version and as much as I love this pattern I am having major problems with the sleeves coming out ginormous. Now, I had a similar problem with Rusted Root, and while I know I have chunky arms, they're not THAT chunky! This is only my second sweater, and my first long sleeved one. The first sleeve I knit I did not decrease for the sleeves at all (the pattern doesn't call for any sleeve decreases) and I had to rip back. I thought I ripped back far enough, but apparently not, as the sleeve is still huge at the top and more fitted around my elbow. Now normally I would rip this back now, but I have to have this sweater for the weekend. J and I are heading up to Pittsburgh for our engagement party thrown by my awesome parents and I am planning on wearing it. This leaves no time to rip and reknit. Luckily it does not look too out of place on, it is just a nagging flaw that will drive me nuts until I have a chance to fix it after the party. Luckily I figured out a series of decreases for the other sleeve (with lots of math, not usually my friend) and it fits like a glove. I'll have more on this and a proper FO post next week. Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend!

ETA: As promised here are the sleeve photos. God, I can't even look at the deformed one! It is that bad. First, the good one. The one with mathmatical decreases that slightly tapers to the elbow and fits perfectly.



And here is the, uh, not so perfect one.



Don't say I didn't warn you, I told you it was bad.

Presenting Rusted Root!

Presenting... Rusted Root!



My first sweater. After three weeks and four skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece I have a lovely spring/summer/fall sweater. I love it, and not in an obligatory because I made it kind of way, but in an over the top lovefest sort of way. The color is perfect, the fit is perfect, the design is perfect, and the knitting is, well almost perfect. Here are my thoughts on the various aspects of the process.

The yarn: I really like Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. It comes in a great variety of colors and is reasonably priced. Being a cotton blend yarn (80% cotton / 20% wool) I had feared it might be a tad hard on my hands like many cotton yarns can be, but I had absolutely no problems with it hurting my hands. The yarn is soft to the touch, and does have considerable more elasticity than 100% cotton yarn. My only gripe about Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece is that it can be incredibly splitty. There were many stitches I had to go back and make sure I had the entire loop on the needle not just a few of the strands that make up the yarn. In this respect I had to pay more attention to each stitch then I would have if I was using a non-splitty yarn. Overall, I'd recommend Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and will use it again in future projects.



Pattern: The pattern is incredibly well written except one small section that could be confusing to those new to top-down raglan sweaters (ie ME!). It was written to M1, K1 right after the lace pattern instead of K to first marker M1 K1. This put the increases for the sleeves right after the lace pattern unless you knew to knit to 1 st before the sleeve marker. So for a few rows until I realized what I was doing was wrong I made the increases right after the lace pattern. I caught it only a few rounds in, so I decided to let it go and not rip back. It is barely noticeable. Aside from that one minor flaw in the pattern, I didn't find any others. One thing about this pattern I found after browsing through the Craftster archives is that the sizes tend to run big. I am normally a size XL, but I downsized to a size large for this sweater, which is a good thing because it fits perfectly. The beauty of the pattern (and top-down raglans) is that you can try them on as you go. I tried mine on quiet a bit while in the process of knitting to make sure everything was working as intended. I know that several people over at the Sexy Knitters Club Sexy Knitters Club were having problems with the sleeves ending up not being poufy enough. I didn't really want super poufy sleeves because a large chest + poufy sleeves = not flattering. What I did want was the sleeves to be a bit longer. My sleeves actually turned out a bit larger than intended (see gauge below) but I'm not sure if it bothers me enough to rip them back. I didn't notice how large they were until after the sweater was blocked, they didn't bother me before it was blocked.

Gauge: My gauge differed from the recommended gauge only in the number of stitches per row. I was spot on for the number of stitches per inch, but I was getting one less stitch per row which meant less knitting!

Needles: I used Knitpicks options needles and boy are they great for this type of sweater! It is way simple to try it on as you go by leaving the cables in with the endcaps on. I used a US 6 for the body and a US 4 for the ribbing. Definitely love these needles.

Modifications: I didn't modify it very much. I did a few more rows of ribbing on the sleeves and bottom, but that's it.



Overall Thoughts: I will definitely make this sweater again and I am already thinking of a long-sleeved winter version with a cable motif where the lace panel is currently. I love the asymmetrical look to it and really like the versitility the lace panel affords as it would be really easy to swap out stitch pattern of a similar size. I really like top down raglans, in fact I already have another one on the needles (more about that later). I loved the process of this knit. I learned so many things, top down sweater construction, lace patterns, and beign truthful with myself about patience over progress. This sweater felt like it went incredibly fast and I was unusually monogamous with it. I am by no means a monogamous knitter ( uh hello log cabin blanket, I'll get back to you eventually!) but I had such a great time watching it grow on my needles that I pushed myself to continue. I finished it in three weeks but didn't block it until last Sunday. (I had a tremendous amount of guilt about showing you all photos of an unblocked Rusted Root, so I decided to delay the F.O. post to show off Rusted Root how she deserves to be seen, all shiny and clean and de-lumpified.) And me? I'm still basking in the "I just completed the first-ever sweater" glow.

Sweater Time

So I have decided it is high time to knit a sweater. I have no idea why the idea struck me at this particular moment especially since it was, oh, 83 degrees here today, definitely NOT sweater weather. Inspired by the Sexy Knitters Club Knit-A-Long, I have decided to knit Zephyr Style's Rusted Root Sweater A cute cap sleeved sweater with a nice lace pattern down the front.




But when I think of Rusted Root all I can hear in my head is THIS (Big plus that they are from my hometown)

I'm still deciding on the yarn and color. The pattern calls for Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I am not really enthralled with any of the colors that WEBS carries, and at $8.20 a ball I'm not sure if I want to drop that much cash on my first sweater which I'm sure won't be perfect. Maybe I'll look around for more colors at other online retailers. I'm also thinking of using Lion Brand Cotton-ease. Lion Brand is definitely not one of my favorites to work with, but when I don't want to spend a lot of cash for the good stuff it is always another option. I definitely want a cotton/cotton-blend yarn for this sweater since it will be a spring/summer/fall sweater. Who am I kidding, it will most likely be a fall sweater since summer here in Virginia equals humid, 85-95 degree days, and spring...well by the time I finish this it will be summer. Any suggestions for a yarn sub would be appreciated. The gauge is supposed to be 5 sts/ 1 inch on size US 6 needles. The Knit Picks Options needles are ordered, now I just need to pick a yarn...